By Stefan Yablonski
The tourism industry is a massive generator of income in the state. It is in the top three.
According to the Empire State Development, it’s a $79 billion industry and supports 7% of all jobs in the state.
“That makes it the third-largest employment sector in the state,” said Mark Dorr, president of the New York State Hospitality and Tourism Association. “It’s a huge industry. I don’t want to make it sound like things aren’t good. It’s just incrementally, before COVID they were able to jump a little bit each year. This year, I think is going to be more close to what happened last summer. Not going to have that incremental growth.”
Still strong
The industry is very strong; but one of the difficult things impacting many is pricing, he said.
“Hotels, parks and attractions have really been trying to crack down on their pricing to allow families to travel,” he added. “I think Central New York is not unlike every other region of the state at this point. Since COVID, the business travel — businesses that use to hold conventions, conferences, you come to a hotel, you meet people, you have an event — still not has come back to pre-COVID levels. It may never.”
It’s off 10% 15% from what it was as far as business travel, men and women going to meet their clients or going to try to stir up some new business, Dorr said.
“They’ve found that they can still do a lot of that online,” he said.
Dorr said many in the industry are trying to add or offer free entertainment as an extra incentive to get people and families to spend their time and money.
That’s one soft area in the industry, he said.
“It’s true in Central New York as it is in many other parts of the state that has large business constituents.” Dorr said.
Issues
There are some other big issues that have impacted the industry over the last few years.
“This includes hiring, educating the public and efforts to regulate the short-term rental market, he said.
If you are planning a trip, “go to the regional convention and visitor’s bureau. They have all the resources from hotels to attractions to amusement parks. They can help with building your trip, pricing and budgeting,” he said.
Another thing is that this spring, it was very good, he said, adding, “We had the eclipse. So people took a three-day weekend to take part in it. Kind of what they would have had in July. So that helped boost up the spring. Other than that, everything was pretty much comparable to last year.”
“This summer — we’re looking at June, July and August — the guests are starting to book a little closer to the day they are going to travel. They are not pre-booking like they did in previous years. The travelers are very cognizant of the room rate, the overnight rate more than they were,” he said.
In the past couple of years, where the hotel industry’s summers were able to drive their rate pretty well — they are not being able to do that this year.
“It’s pretty comparable to last year,” he said. “There isn’t a big uptick as to what they can get for an overnight room.
“The reason for that — we have been hearing from our members — is people are booking closer to the time they are going to stay and they are looking much more closely at the rate they are willing to pay. Really it’s economics. Inflation has started to kind of take a hold of people. People are starting to take a look at the cost of things more, including hotel rooms.”
Inflation, even though it’s steadied over the past couple of months, it’s still — if you go into a grocery store and look around, you’re looking at things that are really expensive, he said.
“And then if you’ve got to pay for that in order to feed your family, you’re saying, ‘I can’t afford to go (on vacation) for as many days,’” he added.
Central New york
Booking closer, not willing to pay as much for the room and cutting down on the length of the stays. Those are all critical areas for the Central New York hospitality area that is being looked at very closely, Dorr said.
The rates are still good; it’s just they are not able to increase them the way they were the last couple of years, he added.
“People are much more focused on the rates. They are looking for hotels where they can go and spend their money and do multiple things that maybe don’t cost that much money or are free — ‘what can I go see for a minimal price?’” he explained. “Especially in Central New York you’ve done a good job packaging things together.
“People are looking at hotels, with packages of things that the family can do that are not that expensive. ‘Book a room with us and hey, look at all the things you can do around us.’ That’s why marketing has become really crucial. You want people to come and stay three, four nights — but when you factor in your food, ice cream, you amusement, it becomes a big bill. So that’s a concern for the industry.
“There are always those big events — like the solar eclipse out by you guys that was really, really great. For the Capital Region, we just had the Belmont Stakes; that makes a whole month for folks in those areas. The marine sanctuary designation for Lake Ontario; all of those special events, are going to help any summer attraction. That is why a lot of hotels are trying to find partners more than ever.”
